


Fathomless Air

by GStK



Category: Kagerou Project
Genre: F/M, Post-Summertime Record
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-02
Updated: 2015-11-02
Packaged: 2018-04-29 13:25:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5129231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GStK/pseuds/GStK
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"If I could live again my life,<br/>In the next -<br/>I'll have more real problems, and less imaginary ones."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fathomless Air

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BlackCats](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackCats/gifts).



> Vague ending spoilers. Mekakucity continuity.  
> Straightforward and dialogue-heavy. Sweet but not bitter, for a change of pace.

There is an after.

An after he’d never thought he’d get, but he’s learned his lesson: too much thinking leads nowhere good.

( _Too much thinking leads to hours of wasted effort, a pixellated girl giggling behind the throw of her sleeves_ —)

‘What’re you spacing out for?’

He starts; Ayano laughs. She doesn’t even have to lean back to avoid him when he surges up and nearly knocks their heads together. She’s got him down to a science, this girl. No more theories, now, but a pleasant certainty.

Shintaro groans and slumps.

‘I’m not.’ Really. He’s not. He’s pulling back against the quicksand of his mind, but sometimes – ‘It’s this heat,’ he complains. ‘Seriously. How are you not melting right now?’

– sometimes she smiles just like _that_ , a play at innocence that doesn't try, and he can feel himself reel all the way back.

(– _and that same girl, days later and hundreds of times, finding him a new keyboard_.)

Ayano hits the stop button on the film projector when she reaches out to him, and Shintaro’s eyes go wide, panic setting in as her hands reach for his face.

Her cold hands.

Her cold, clammy hands.

Shintaro yelps; Ayano laughs, again.

‘I _said_ ,’ she tells him reproachfully, ‘”Maybe I’m just special.” But since you ruined it…’ She leans back, starts to fish around in her purse, and he can’t help but gape. In the light of the brilliant sun, her hair has this sheen, all the way from the top to where strands tangle in the weave of her scarf. The dress she’s got on is perfect for today, white and elegant, but there’s a second where he blinks and he sees black sleeves billowing –

And then she bonks him on the head. Shintaro nearly swallows his tongue, swearing. He makes a grab for her arm, but only gets a Coke bottle instead, and the culprit sways away from him, free. For a third time, she laughs at him.

His face feels hot. He’d blame the heat, or annoyance, but he knows now what it is.

‘Kousuke gave me them – earlier.’ Right when he gets his mouth around a _thanks_ , she starts to look all shy. He swallows the word, chokes on it, and feels it sink straight down into his stomach like a rock. She’s going to kill him, Shintaro thinks.

He is hard-pressed not to cry.

‘Don’t give me that look!’ Ayano says, and he stiffens when she glares at him. ‘He likes you! He gave me these because he was worried you were going to pass out. He said, “Be careful Shintaro-san gets enough fluids during your d... d… d-da—‘

Shintaro looks up. Not at Ayano, who is quickly turning as red as her scarf, but at the tree they’re sitting under, casting them in blissful shade. _The perfect spot for a picnic_ , Mary had said. Something like that, and he hadn’t understood the motherly way she’d patted his back.

When he looks back down, Ayano is seconds away from bursting into flame.

He’s going to kill her, Shintaro thinks.

He is hard-pressed not to laugh – is what he wants to say, but he’s got it just as bad.

‘Our d—‘

‘Did you even _think_ ,’ he interrupts, and he’s almost sorry he did: Ayano bites down on her lip in surprise. He sees her run her tongue over it –

– and that’s as far as he goes.

( _Ene cackles evilly somewhere in the corners of his mind_.)

‘T-that. Maybe you should’ve given this to me,’—he jerks the bottle at her—‘Before we started?’

‘I,’ Ayano starts, and his eyebrows raise. ‘I forgot.’

‘You forgot.’

‘I forgot.’ That’s what she says, but she visibly shrinks back when his brows arch further, giggling nervously. He almost loses himself again when she replies. ‘I... well. I was just… they were really…’

Up.

‘… cold, and it was so hot, y-you know, and…’

And up.

‘… you didn’t… seem… interested, so I just…’

And up they continue to go. While Ayano falls apart, Shintaro laments the wrinkles he’s probably just given himself.

‘So you kept them in your purse and didn’t tell me,’ he concludes. He has to bite the inside of his cheek not to smile when Ayano’s face clears, and she nods sharply. He chances, ‘And that’s why you kept messing with it?’

‘I – guess?’ she answers, and she smiles so anxiously, he is sad and fond all at once. ‘I didn’t even notice…’

She. She is so dumb. For some reason, Shintaro finds himself in awe of this fact, even though he’s seen every test paper she’s ever had. He’s tutored her all throughout remedial classes – and yet, this is still somehow shocking.

He is so dumb.

Shintaro blames the way his heart skips a beat on the soda, the heartburn, when he thinks about how they match.

She’s still staring at him when he fiddles with the cap.

‘What.’

‘It’s not – a big deal, is it?’ She’s worried? Ayano’s worried. Shintaro stares at her with the most unattractive bug eyes. ‘I wasn’t trying to –‘

‘I’m not mad,’ he tells her, because they’re past that. They’re past his annoyance with her, burnt up by the summer heat, and they’re past her summery smiles, the ones that pretend that everything’s okay. She is nervous and he is a mess.

But it’s not summer any more. It’s September. Not August.

‘I just thought you were going to leave.’ He makes a face; suddenly, he feels very lame. When he shrinks back into his coat, she leans forward, and his heart starts hammering. ‘When you. Kept messing with it.’

She doesn’t say anything for a while. It’s long enough that he stops curling into himself, looks at her warily, and all the sounds of the cicadas and the people in the park fade away. Ayano folds her hands over her mouth, looking thoughtful. It’s just like – it’s just like –

‘Never,’ she tells him, when he can hear her say _goodbye_ in another time. He jolts, startled out of his thoughts, and this time she _does_ have to move to keep them from conking heads. ‘I’m still here, aren’t I?’

She doesn’t say another word until he answers, and then –

‘Yeah.’ Shintaro inhales. He looks at her, really sees her for the first time. Here. With him. On a date. _Alive_. ‘You’re still here.’

– he thinks he sees her smile beneath the lace of her fingers.

‘So. Don’t be dumb, or I really will leave.’ Ayano takes his free hand in hers, and he can see the expression she’s boasting is not a smile, but a grin.

There is an after.

‘I don’t want to hear that from _you_ ,’ he snaps, or he tries, but he bites his tongue and actually almost dies.

She laughs at him **again** , but he doesn’t really mind.

There is an after, and she is the one who makes it.

**Author's Note:**

> Summary quote comes from a poem by Jorge Luis Borges.


End file.
